“The Nicosphere” was a meditation–tribute–deconstruction of Nico (1938–1988) in the form of an installation, in a visual arts context. It consisted primarily of music (by Merja Kokkonen) and an essay (by Antti Nylén). The installation additionally featured a ‘lumen print’ – unfixed and thus destined to gradually disappear over time – an icon of ‘Mater Dolorosa’, a number of thin beeswax votive candles, and a camera obscura.

“The Nicosphere” was installed at the Amos Anderson art museum in Helsinki, in autumn 2015, as a part of group exhibition centred on the spirituality of St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582).

Nico was an artist who worked in a scene heavily dominated by men, just as Teresa had been part of the patriarchal structure of the Church. Not given proper a space of their own, the women created it for themselves – Teresa in her own spirituality and mysticism and Nico with her own musical space – “The Nicosphere”, as we call it – a radically independent, unclassifiable, still largely unacknowledged artistic vision within the context of ‘popular’ music in the 20th century.

The installation was a humble attempt to set the record straight.

We produced a self-published CD-R edition of the music used in the installation. It contains a rough stereo mix of the original 5.1 surround sound, which was mixed on site by sound engineer Jasmine Guffond. The edition was limited to 50 copies.